The Devil's Bargian
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: 'Naru..." He wheezed as he slowly choked on the blood filling his lungs. Surrounded by the shinobi he had both helped raise and lead for many years. Sarutobi said, 'I wish to make one last bargain with you.' And bargain he did. For his dream- his loved ones, she would become a sacrifice once more. And god the center of her chest hurt. M rated.
1. Chapter 1

_"What are you looking at?" A voice asked gently from several feet away as vivid red eyes stared out into the distance as the one being spoken too silently went over the silly question in her mind. Turning it over and over before she bothered to answer._

_"Nothing. Everything," She paused for a moment before asking randomly. "Did you know that there are exactly three point six million alternative realities?" _

_"What?" Her companion asked in a slightly puzzled tone. Not understanding what she was talking about. Probably because it was close to three in the morning and he was still sort of asleep._

_"Nothing." She said quickly, as a small gust of wind blew around a dust devil somewhere behind her before she said somewhat distractedly. "I can smell them." Which was more like her way of coming right out and saying, 'I can see them.' Yeah that's what she'd meant to say._

_Because she did. See them that is. _

_Not that her companion would understand what she meant anyways. He didn't know the things she knew. He couldn't see them all happening right now. Couldn't smell and taste his own blood. Nor the blood of others. He didn't see the many various times in his own life and how they would shape him and his future. But she could. She could see them all. _

_Every fight. Every barrier broken. Every bridge that was gapped. _

_Every friend. Every lover. Every family. Mother. Father. Daughter and son. _

_The endless possibilities that stretched out before her were...mesmerizing. So breathlessly mesmerizing. Truly they were. And there was so much that she had barely yet to explore. But all roads began and ended the same. And she was far too young to probe the possibilities further. _

_A big hand touched the top of her head causing her to twitch slightly as she tipped her head back and looked at her companion's wrinkled face. "Come Naru. It's late and you should be in bed." _

_She knew that. But she couldn't bring herself to care overly much at the moment. She was too busy checking things out. Her eyes starting to sting from the chakra gathered there, allowing her to see what her companion couldn't. "Naru..." Her companion said again as his hand went to her small boney shoulder. "Come on. It's late- And it's cold." He said with a frown as he bit back a yawn. _

_knowing that he would continue to pester her until she caved in and did as he wished, she sighed in irritation and let the chakra in her eyes bleed away. Causing everything that she had seen so far to disappear as she glared up at him and growled. "Fine." Then swiped at his hand, knocking it from her shoulder and then turned and stomped off. _

_She'd go to bed for now like a good little girl. But that didn't mean that she wasn't kicking him out of his own bed for his damned interference._


	2. Chapter 2

Seven years later-

Naru left the tower in a huff.

Not because Sarutobi- the village Hokage and her surrogate grandfather had gotten cross with her for something she had pulled on several Anbu who had been overly hostile with her the other day. And not because she had come home again with her clothes ripped and blood once again staining her hands. No- those were things Sarutobi understood that she couldn't always control.

But likewise he also understood that she tried to curb the impulses as best as she could. Sometimes going so far as to wound herself to keep from harming others.

But again, that wasn't why she was upset. No the reason that she was so upset at the moment had more to do with the fact that she had come home with blood running down her legs and no frigging idea of what had happened. Which is why Saru had grabbed her and the two of them had spent almost four hours- _yes four_\- disturbing damned hours sitting in the hospital.

He in the hall. She in a room being poked and prodded by a doctor because Sarutobi had thought she had been raped. And upon finding out that she had just started her period, Sarutobi had called upon a female Anbu to explain what was going on with her body because he couldn't deal. He'd just had a bad scare and though he should have considered the possibility that she was technically okay, because of who she was, his mind had automatically gone to worst case scenario.

Which was why the moment they got home, he had locked himself in his office with a shit load of booze to take the edge off of his frayed nerves. And Naru had decided to leave out of embarrassment.

And since she had left, she found herself heading to the only place she was comfortable being near- Ichiraku Ramen. A nice cozy little restaurant just a few blocks from the tower, that served a number of things ranging from dumplings, soups, bento lunches, to sushi and of course a wide variety of ramen. She'd discovered the place purely by accident when she had turned seven.

She'd been jumped by several civilians with weapons. One of whom had been a known felon with a real mean streak and a taste for blood. He had attacked her with the others thinking she wouldn't know how to fight back. Or at least that if she did know how to fight, she wouldn't be able to fend the group off in time. But then they weren't aware of many of the things she could do.

Hell Saru didn't even know about some of it.

But that wasn't the point.

The long and short of it was, she had survived the fight along with the (five out of six) civilians with just one wound. A solid steel spike like the kind used to lay rail road tracks had been put through her upper leg, and partially embedded in the bone. She'd lost her temper after that and had jumped on the guy that had done it and had ripped the skin off of him in layers with her finger nails, while he screamed.

To say that he hadn't survived would be an understatement. He hadn't even had a face left by the time Saru had shown up. In fact-

By the time the Anbu and Saru had found her, she'd been sitting on the chest of his corpse eyeing the rest of the group. And once Saru had come with the Anbu to take care of the rest of things, he'd made her promise to go straight back to the tower so that he could bring a medic to tend to her wound in private since he knew how she was sometimes when she was in pain.

Needless to say- she'd taken her own sweet time getting there since she had stopped by Ichiraku's to use the restroom so that she could pull the spike out. And upon seeing her wounded, Ayame and her father; the owner of the restaurant- Teuchi, had immediately shut the shop down and both had done what they could to help her.

Thinking that she was going to bleed to death or something (though she had to admit, they probably had a pretty good reason for that, there had been a lot of blood) Teuchi had finished bandaging her wound then went and fixed her a bowl of special ramen that was supposed to be- How had he explained it? Something like a soldier pill and a food pill rolled into one.

It was meant to bring up her heart rate a little bit, along with her respiration and help give her energy too so that she could stay conscious. And he and Ayame had both sat and talked to her while they force fed her at least three bowls.

It had been sweet. Kind of like the time Saru had thrown her a surprise birthday, even though he knew she didn't like people randomly jumping out at her. And ever since then, she Teuchi and Ayame had been like best buds.

They hadn't cared who she was. Or that she carried a demon inside of her.

They were awesome people. Good friends and secret keepers. And the day she turned legal she was totally giving them both a big kiss- in a purely non weird sort of way.

Making her way through the semi crowded streets, she sighed and stuffed her hands in her pants pockets and wished that she had worn her favorite black and jade colored jacket. The one with the hood. She could already sense the eyes of many civilians and shinobi tuning into her every movement. And while she was used to being watched as if she were a monster (probably because she'd made peace with the fact that she sort of was) it didn't mean that she liked having so many watching her so closely.

Someone might get a funny idea in their head, and then she'd have to hurt them. And by doing so the village would be in an uproar- feeling that she must have instigated the violence by threatening someone instead of simply defending herself.

She was suddenly jolted out of her thoughts by a painful feeling in her lower abdomen and nearly doubled over. _Ow! Ow, that hurt... _Naru thought as she placed her hand over the spot that was hurting her and rubbed at it absently. The lady Anbu that had explained things to her earlier at the hospital had told her that discomfort was normal, especially since it was her first time experiencing this. But Naru felt the woman was off a bit on her info.

She knew discomfort was natural. For a normal human female.

But then, Naru wasn't exactly normal was she. And because of this fact, she felt more deeply than most humans did. So when she felt another particularly vicious stab of pain in her abdomen, she had to grit her teeth to keep from crying out. As she thought, _Not much father now. I can hold on until I reach Ichiraku's._


	3. Chapter 3

**_Okay first of all- haven't seen Lucy. I've seen previews. _**

**_Second of all- not a one shot. _**

**_Here's the update for tonight. Enjoy!_**

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The moment she slipped into Ichiraku Ramen, Teuchi and Ayame both looked up from what they were working on to greet her as she quickly grabbed a seat and tapped the counter twice with her index finger to indicate what she wanted to drink. Then rapped on it again, three times with her knuckles to indicate what she wanted to eat. This was the system of communication she had been using since she met them.

And it was one that both Teuchi and his daughter understood well since it could also be used as a partial indication of her mood and health. Speaking of- Teuchi set her drink down in front of her, a nice glass of milk and another glass of chamomile tea sweetened a bit with honey as she tapped the counter again (five times in two intervals) ten taps in all to indicate both her mood and health.

Teuchi looked at her, his expression somewhat disturbed as he asked, "Is it really that bad?" Sparking the beginning of their usual conversation.

"Yeah. Just got out of the hospital." Naru said as she propped her elbow on the counter and settled her chin in her palm.

"Really?" Ayame asked as she finished putting together her food and brought it over to her and set it down in front of her. Naru nodded her head soberly as she glanced down at her food and frowned a bit. Strange. It was her favorite chicken flavored ramen complete with vegetables and a boiled egg, but for some strange reason she felt like something was missing or off with it. It looked totally unappetizing to her. "Why were you in the hospital?"

"Grandpa thought I had been raped." Naru said bluntly, not bothering to censor her words and got concerned/startled looks from both Teuchi and Ayame.

"D-Did you?" Teuchi asked in an almost shell shocked tone, his eyes wide in his pale face.

"No." Naru said in a growling tone as she continued to stare down at her bowl of ramen. Still confused about why she felt something was wrong with it.

"Then why would he think-" Teuchi started to ask when Naru sort of cut him off.

"I was bleeding and didn't know why. And he just sort of freaked thinking the worst."

"O-Oh." Teuchi said dumbly as Ayame finally noticed that she wasn't eating and smiled as she asked,

"It the ramen okay Naru? You haven't touched it."

Naru looked up for a second, her eyes a brief flicker of red darting up to their faces before she looked back down and frowned a bit. "It looks okay. It smells just like usual- but I have a weird feeling that something is off." Normally Teuchi would become upset by such statements, but knowing Naru wasn't trying to be insulting helped keep him level headed as Naru stuck a finger in the broth and brought it up to her mouth and sucked it off of her finger.

As usual, the chicken flavor of the broth was wonderfully done and soaked into the noodles and vegetable really well. But there also seemed to be a strange tangy taste that had never been present before. Maybe that was what was off with her ramen. Either that or it was her sense of taste going wonky. Doing the finger taste thingy again- Teuchi and his daughter watched her until Ayame quickly seemed to think of something and disappeared into the side of the restaurant and came back a moment later with some cookies and a chocholate squeeze bottle and a bowl of honey mustard.

"Here try this." She said as she set the cookies, chocholate squeeze bottle, and bowl of honey mustard down in front of Naru. Curious to see what the stuff tasted like with her ramen Naru took a moment to try the cookies by dipping them in the broth of her food. Hmm. The sweetness of the cookies mixed with the flavor of chicken wasn't half bad. Naru thought as she then tried a couple of noodles with some chocholate and though it was...weird- in a good way- it just didn't do anything for her.

So next she tried the noodles with some honey mustard. And nearly moaned when the taste hit her tongue. _Oh. Oh! _Oh that was good. Damned good. Picking up the bowl of honey mustard she dumped the whole thing into her ramen and started to mix it into her ramen. But there was more ramen than honey mustard which left her with only the slight tangy sweetness overshadowing her favorite food when she asked almost awkwardly, "Do you have any more?" As she put the empty bowl on the counter then picked up another cookie and tried it with her ramen.

Oh, that was good too. But she'd probably just eat the cookies separately.

Teuchi looked down at her as she took a few more bites of her food. Alternating between the ramen and cookies without inhaling them like she normally did, and shrugged his shoulders. Whatever. If it was more honey mustard Naru wanted- it was more she'd get.


	4. Chapter 4

**This chap is from Sarutobi's prov-**

Naru had left the tower in a huff again. Sarutobi inwardly cringed as he heard the door down stairs slam with enough force to shake the tower on it's very foundation.

Not because he- her surrogate grandfather had gotten cross with her for something or because she had been overly hostile toward some of his Anbu the other day. And not because she had come home again with her clothes ripped and blood once again staining her hands. No- those were things knew and understood would probably always happen. He understood that she couldn't always control herself or the demon fox sealed within her. Just like he knew that the people of the village became violent towards her at times.

But likewise he also understood that she _tried _in her own way to curb the impulses as best as she could. Often times hurting herself to prevent the harming of others. But again, that wasn't why he was currently upset and hiding out in his office with a few bottle of his stoutest liquor. Looking out the window at the child's back as she quickly cut across the yard to the fence and jumped it, and then vanished from his sight.

No. The reason that he was so upset at the moment had more to do with the fact that she had come home with blood running down her legs and hadn't been able to tell him clearly, through her own shock and panic, what had happened. Which is why he had instantly grabbed her and the two of them had spent almost four hours- _yes four_\- overly distressing, and disturbing damned hours sitting in the hospital.

He in the hall. Where he could have his freak out without anyone paying overly much attention to how _badly_ he wanted to fuck something or someone up.

And she in a room, just a few feet from where he was standing, being poked and prodded by a doctor- a specialist who dealt with situations like these, because he had thought she had been raped. And upon finding out that she had just started her period, he had been so rattled/relieved and then instantly horrified all over again that he had called upon a female Anbu to explain what was going on with her body because he just couldn't deal.

After all Naru as she was right now was... well, utterly terrifying at best. Monsterous at worst. And now that she was changing into an adolescent- well lets just say that he had years and years worth of vacation time coming up. And he intended to use every single day of it. And if he came back to a smoldering pile of ashes- well whatever.

Better everyone else than him.

Anyways he'd just gone through a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster. A type of hell of his own making and though he should have considered the possibility that she was technically okay, because of who she was, his mind had automatically gone to worst case scenario. That had been his bad. Really it had. But in all honestly the moment that he'd seen her standing outside the door of their home with blood running down her legs... It had been an instant reminder of several facts all at once.

For all her strength and knowledge, Naru was a child. Which was something that he forgot all too often. Much like the fact that she wasn't a normal human being sometimes slipped his mind. She was socially awkward and vulnerable as a young female. For all her cleverness she could be incredibly dumb sometimes. Aside from him, she had no real friends or family for that matter. Unless one bothered to count the Toad Sage, Jirayia and The White Fang, Kakashi Hatake. Both of whom had never shown any interest in Naru or her wellbeing. Which made him fear deeply for the child.

If anything were to ever happen to him, he had this horrible, suffocating feeling...that she would be lost forever.

Which was why the moment they got home, he had locked himself in his office with a shit load of booze to take the edge off of his frayed nerves. And Naru- as usual- had decided to leave out of embarrassment/anger instead of stick around and rip the walls of their home down brick by damned brick for the sole purpose of chucking them at his head.

Not that her feelings were totally unfounded. He had gone a mite overboard with his reaction. And hopefully she understood the reason for this and would be in a slightly more forgiving mood after eating something.

But he doubted it since the kid wasn't a terribly forgiving person.


	5. Chapter 5

_Holy shit! Maybe I spoke a little too soon... _Teuchi thought in dismay as he and his daughter, Ayame, stared at the pile of thirty bowls of ramen and the stack of twenty something bowls of honey mustard and the fifteen plates of cookies that Naru had just polished off and blanched a little as the girl laid her head on the counter with a contented sigh.

The kid had always eaten like she had a black hole for a stomach, but this- this was something else completely. If this was how she was going to eat every time she started her monthly, they'd be out of business soon!

Teuchi looked over at his daughter as she glanced over at him, unsure of what to do now because they weren't a hundred percent sure that Naru was done eating at the moment and she had no desire whatsoever to reach over and take any of the dishes only to lose a hand. "Um... N-Naru?" Ayame said in an tentative tone, hoping that the girl would at least give her some sort of sign that it was safe.

Luckily for her, Naru must have known what she was thinking. Either that or she was speaking aloud in a whispered tone again and Naru's sharp ears had heard her saying, "Please don't rip off my hand, please don't rip off my hand, please don't rip off my hand..." And lifted her head slightly to look at the two blankly for a moment and then rapped on the counter five times to let them know that everything was okay.

Like she had the last time she had come under attack in their restaurant.

Sighing in relief the two visibly relaxed and missed the flash of hurt in the pair of red eyes watching their every move.

It isn't their fault, Naru told herself as her chest began to ache a bit in response to their discomfort. They couldn't help but feel wary of her from time to time. They were only human after all. Simple. Cautious. Kind hearted. _Humans_. Many in her position would not bother trying to make friends with them. They would manipulate, inflict emotional and physical pain upon them.

They would break them apart in an instant if the humans let them do so.

So it was only natural of them to be wary of her despite the fact that she had never hurt them before and didn't plan too anytime soon in the near or otherwise distant future. And she couldn't fault them for knowing what she knew and feeling uncomfortable around her sometimes. Sighing she lifted her head somewhat. Her long blond hair slipping over her slender shoulders and into her eyes as she moved, and asked how much she owed.

Teuchi paused in helping Ayame gather the dishes and stared at her for a moment, the two of them knowing damn good and well that he often fed her for free out of mere affection for her. So there was no need for her to bother paying him. Really there wasn't. Yet the moment he opened his mouth to tell her that- he found himself staring into fox like eyes that held a small hint of anger and bitterness in them, and found that his voice wouldn't work for him right then.

Looking at Naru sadly, he moved away from the counter and over to the register where he rang at least half of her food up and by the time he told her what he wanted and turned around to look at her again- her seat was rattling back and forth- empty of her presence. And there was twice as much money as he had mentioned to her laying on the counter.

Naru was gone. And all he and his daughter could do was stand there and wring their hands with worry.

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Naru walked the streets of the village with her head down and her hands stuffed in her pants pockets. Her shoulders slumped ever so slightly. Her mood from earlier was back with a vengeance now thanks to the carless actions of Ayame and Teuchi. Not that she could blame them, again, she couldn't hold such things against them. She knew that she wasn't exactly a very normal child. Nor was she very nice.

In fact, she often wondered why Saru didn't just give up on her and abandon her outside of the village to live or die as nature dictated. God knew that if she were in his place, she would have probably done so long before now.

She was infuriating to live with.

Humming, she decided that heading back home now would be a bad idea and changed directions and started heading for a small wooded area where she sometimes went to think about things and decided that if her mood hadn't changed by sun down then she simply wouldn't go home tonight.


	6. Chapter 6

By the time that Naru reached the wooded area that she often came too to think- she was almost in tears. Her chest ached from Ayame and Teuchi's reaction to her. Again and again, she had told herself that it wasn't their fault. She was a dangerous being. Even she was acutely aware of this fact and yet... Why did every little recoil, every little look of fear- seem to cut her all the way to the bone?

She didn't understand it. She never really had despite Saru's attempts to drill the knowledge of such things into her head.

She had, and always had been much like an empty vessel. She had never really experienced physical or emotional pain or conflict. It was as if it was all simply beyond her grasp or understanding. Which was perhaps what made her so dangerous to the ones around her. Perhaps it was why Saru had invested so much time in trying his hardest to teach her what she needed to know about holding back and showing mercy and compassion though at this point she was beginning to doubt she would ever truely _feel_ those feelings towards anyone or anything.

Which made her question her relationships with Teuchi and Ayame and Saru.

If she was truely incapable of feeling mercy, compassion and so on...then just what were they to her? Did her inability to feel certain things mean that she was also incapable of feeling friendship? And if so- did that mean that she was just like all of the other demon containers? Manipulative? Ready to inflict suffering and pain? Or was the reason she was incapable of feeling things a certain sort of survival tactic? A way to numb emotions that could other wise get her killed.

It was true that she was somewhat of a sadist when pissed, and she was wreckless (also when pissed)- Saru had learned that first hand when she was younger. But that wasn't really the point.

She rubbed her shirt, right inbetween her small breasts as if that would make the ache in her chest ease and slowly sat down on the cold ground under a tree she found suitable and looked around. And after a moment or two, hummed as her slender shoulders slumped slightly almost as if in defeat. She had come a lot further into the woods than she had meant too.

She could tell because there was little to nothing that was familiar to her. And perhaps that was a good thing. She didn't really feel like being around others right now anyways.

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Dark eyes peered curiously around the trunk of the tree in which he had been snoozing under for the past few hours and took in the slight figure of the little blonde sitting slumped over on in on herself and he frowned. That girl... He'd seen her before a time or two in the village. Always either out and about with the Hokage or by herself.

No one ever approached her or talked to her with the exception of a few civilians and shinobi who had stupidly attacked her. He hadn't seen her fighting style per se, but from what he had gleaned of the fact that she still breathed she was a formidable person.

Perhaps that was why the Hokage seemed to take such an interest in her? He wondered as he scratched the top on his head in puzzlement as it occurred to him after a moment or two of thought- that he'd seen her somewhere else too.

At school... He had classes with her!

Her name was Naru. A-n-d- he'd had a crush on her for about a month now.

Facepalming, he made a low almost inadible sound as he mentally whined, Aw man. What was a guy supposed to do in a situation like this? Was he supposed to leave her be? Go up to her and try to strike up a conversation?

_Hi! My name is Shikamaru Nara, and you have the most beautiful ruby colored eyes I've ever seen. _And knowing Naru's personality like he'd seen it to be, she'd pluck out an eye and drop it into his hand and then growl at him to go away. As it turned out she didn't do well with compliments. Or fawning. Or affection in general apparently.

Which created one hell of a problem for him.


	7. Chapter 7

Naru sighed tiredly, knowing that she was being watched by one of the village children- yet couldn't bring herself to care all that much as long as the boy left her alone. Instead she let her eyes stare straight ahead unblinkingly and watched as entire realities (so alike and yet different from her own) began to slowly unfurl themselves before her eyes. It was an amazing thing to see.

Starting out simply with the different nebula's, milky ways and stars. Each sparkling a different color for each different life.

She could see alternate versions of herself. Hundreds upon millions of them- each with different upbringings, personalities, and fates. All entwined yet separate at the same time, making her smile faintly as it occurred to her what they were and would one day be.

Immortals.

Each of them would become immortals that everyone in the world would know. No perhaps saying they would become immortal was a bit arrogant of her. The closer truth of things was that they would be legends.

The ones who changed the destiny of the world.

Yes. Legends seemed to suit them better though she was the only one who knew it and could _see_ it. The moment when everything would come together would be during last few moments of the next great shinobi war. Against Kagura.

She saw herself there on the battle field, bruised, and bleeding for the future of all human kind. And she could see her other selves appear- pulled out of time and space by a jutsu that she had invented when she left the village with Jiraiya. There was so many of them.

Hundreds. Thousands. Millions even.

All of them at different stages in age and development, each ganging up on Kagura until the woman had no choice but to die again. The terror of facing so many who held so much boundless potential would be enough to scare anyone back to the grave, Naru thought with an amused smirk as she let the sight disappear and finally blinked her eyes as she brought her hands up to rub at them.

Oooh- She must have been staring for a while, her eyes were so dry they were burning in her sockets.

The soft crunch of leaves had her turning her head slightly to face the one disturbing her as he finally seemed to gather the courage to approach her. "Naru?" He said tentatively as he stopped well outside of her reach, causing her lips to almost quirk up_. My, my._ Brave and smart- she must have hit some sort of jackpot.

"Something I can do for you Nara?" She said, purposely leaving the honorific off of his name. Hoping to perhaps get a rise out of him. But the boy was either smarter than he let on or simply didn't care about the lack of respect he was given by her.

"It's getting really late-" He pointed out to her. As if she couldn't smell the twilight rays from the sun as the day had ended a while ago. "Can I walk you home?" He tried to sound polite to her, but she could tell that he was more or less giving her an order.

He would not leave her alone in a wooded area with potentially dangerous animals when he could simply take her home and be sure that she was safe.

And for a moment she was silent. Her ruby eyes just looking at him as if he were insane. And then the look on her face changed, it was brief- only lasting for a second, maybe less- but he still saw it. That look of such murderous anger and fury that he almost took several steps back and wondered if perhaps he should re phrase his words and ask her to walk him home instead.

After all, in his mind anyone who could give such a look would have no problem with wolves, bears, man eating sharks (it was dumb but it really did pop into his mind) or anything else for that matter. "What's wrong Nara? Are you scared of me?" Naru asked in a menacing tone as she slowly got to her feet and let her chakra flair just enough to intimidate him into stumbling back while trying to apologize for sounding so- well, sexist before.

His mother was still sort of in the process of breaking the habits that his dad ingrained on him when he was younger. But then Naru didn't know that. And even if she did, there was the possibility that she simply wouldn't care. "What's wrong Nara?" Naru asked as she advanced on him a bit while cracking her knuckles. "I thought you wanted to walk me home."

He stumbled back a bit more, shaking his head as he said almost weakly- "No! No, I was going to ask you to walk me home it just came out wrong!"

Naru paused in mid step and dropped her hands as she studied him for a moment with a look of somewhat disappointment on her face before smiling at him. "Whatever you say, lets go before you're dad comes."


End file.
